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Don't fall for this notion that you have to be taking x amount of science classes per term to be doing well. Do you think adcoms are looking at how many credit hours of BCPM you are taking per term?

As long as you take the prereqs and courses to graduate, and you are a full-time student, you're fine. Just do well in your classes.
 
Yeah you're fine. Do what you want to do as long as you take care of the necessary pre-reqs.
 
JMoonlight said:
I feel like I finally settled on a courseload for this semester. My school generally has 4 classes/semester, without any notion of credit hours (basically all courses are weighted equally).

Orgo II
Neural Systems
Brain Damage (A Psyc Class)
Organization Management (An engineering class)

The last class is known to be easy, but the professor is supposed to be excellent, and the material is supposed to be practical and interesting.

However, looking around here, it seems like a lot of people are taking three bio/sci classes normally, and I was wondering if my schedule seemed below par. Should I consider taking Immuno instead of Engineering? Or would this schedule seem "balanced?"

I'm also doing some pretty heavy EC's (volunteering, RAing, e-board for 2 organizations and perhaps TAing or researching). I don't want to overburden myself and burn out, but I don't want to fall behind either.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?
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4 courses per semester is awesome... I'm falling in love with your institution already. The standard at mine in order to graduate on time (4yr bachelor's degree) is 5 courses per semester.
 
Mellymel09 said:
4 courses per semester is awesome... I'm falling in love with your institution already. The standard at mine in order to graduate on time (4yr bachelor's degree) is 5 courses per semester.
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We need 120 credits over 4 years, so 5 classes per semester would be the norm. I've taken an even balance between 4 and 5 classes, but I usually have 1-2 labs per semester which count as an extra 1 credit (2 credits for Organic Lab) which allows people to register for a class and a lab separately.

Did you come in with AP credit? I was awarded a ton of credit through AP towards the 120 credit requirement and now I can take 4 classes per semester and still possibly graduate one semester early even with an intended double major. You should be fine.
 
semesters make no sense to me. quarters are so much better.
 
Isoprop said:
Don't fall for this notion that you have to be taking x amount of science classes per term to be doing well. Do you think adcoms are looking at how many credit hours of BCPM you are taking per term?
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Schools do look at course load.
 
Beta Cell said:
We need 120 credits over 4 years, so 5 classes per semester would be the norm. I've taken an even balance between 4 and 5 classes, but I usually have 1-2 labs per semester which count as an extra 1 credit (2 credits for Organic Lab) which allows people to register for a class and a lab separately.

Did you come in with AP credit? I was awarded a ton of credit through AP towards the 120 credit requirement and now I can take 4 classes per semester and still possibly graduate one semester early even with an intended double major. You should be fine.
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Oh Ok, that's quite similar to my school then. Yeah, my program requires around the same number of credits. I'm actually going to start my final year next month. However, I'm Canadian and so I think the whole AP thing is slightly different here...for one thing, it's not as common I don't think, at least not in my area. My sis had one AP course, and it was a languages course but that's all I heard of and my High School had one for Spanish or something but that was it. In my university, many of the labs for first and second year are included with the class, so you get a total of 3 credits for class and lab combined, not 3 credits for lab and 3 for class which really sucked since most classes on their own without labs are worth 3 credits so it was like a whole lot of extra work for no extra credits! And then, some labs are considered like courses on their own and are worth 3 credits as well... I don't know why they do that. You would think it's because some labs require more time and work than others, but that's not always the case from what I have experienced.
 
ColeOnTheRoll said:
What I want to know is... how does your institution manage to have no concept of credit hours?
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My college does something similar. Each course is designed (in theory) to take up 1/4 of your "academic time". By graduation, you are expected to have taken 32 classes and passed 30 them.

As a matter of fact, the OP's institution sounds eerily similar to my own. JMoonlight, check your PMs 😀.
 
I took a 12 credit hour semester last spring and it was the most difficult semester I have ever taken. Conversely, I took a 17 credit hour semester Freshman year and breezed through it.

I'm taking another 12 credit hour semester this Fall, which includes neurology, genetic conflict, and microbiology. I suppose it's a relatively light load, but when you add tutoring, volunteering, bioclub, hockey, MCAT/Kaplan etc, all of a sudden you have no free time whatsoever. I do admit that I'm somewhat concerned with how med schools will look at consecutive 12 credit hour semesters, and possibly a third in the Spring because I only need one more class to graduate after this semester (scheduling conflicts with another class prevented me from taking it).
 
JMoonlight said:
I feel like I finally settled on a courseload for this semester. My school generally has 4 classes/semester, without any notion of credit hours (basically all courses are weighted equally).

Orgo II
Neural Systems
Brain Damage (A Psyc Class)
Organization Management (An engineering class)

The last class is known to be easy, but the professor is supposed to be excellent, and the material is supposed to be practical and interesting.

However, looking around here, it seems like a lot of people are taking three bio/sci classes normally, and I was wondering if my schedule seemed below par. Should I consider taking Immuno instead of Engineering? Or would this schedule seem "balanced?"

I'm also doing some pretty heavy EC's (volunteering, RAing, e-board for 2 organizations and perhaps TAing or researching). I don't want to overburden myself and burn out, but I don't want to fall behind either.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?
Click to expand...

I'm very interested in knowing what school you go to.

Also, medical school won't care about the "academic rigor" of your semester course load unless its blatantly obvious that you are slacking. If you have two science classes in there, you are good.
 
I feel that a lot of people taking multiple bios/science courses in a semester are needing to do so for their degree, not because they are particularly un-slackerish.

Your courses sound interesting and challenging, don't worry about it I'd say.
 
Medical schools sift through several thousand applications each year. Do you think they will scrutinize your schedule, counting all the courses and hours? No.

They will check your school reputation, major, GPA, and status as a full-time student and then your MCAT score before moving on to your personal statement or to the next application. If your GPA and MCAT are below average or don't meet the cutoff, your personal statement and EC list might not even be read.
 
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